Letchworth Avenue

Letchworth Avenue runs north from Faulkner Street and Station Street at North Billerica, past the old Faulkner mill houses, through the Billerica Garden Suburb, to the town's wastewater treatment plant by the Concord River. Its southern end is older than its name. Three double houses built for the workers of the Faulkner mills between about 1875 and 1887 stand at its foot, and a plan of the land of Charles H. Williams surveyed by Smith and Brooks in June 1914 shows the way north from Carleton Street past those houses as a "private right of way," with a "proposed street" drawn over it.

The street was laid out for the Billerica Garden Suburb, incorporated on June 14, 1914 to build houses for workers at the Boston and Maine Railroad repair shops then being built at North Billerica. The project was led by the Rev. Charles H. Williams, the English-born pastor of the North Billerica Baptist Church, who owned the land and lived on Carleton Street, and was planned by Arthur C. Comey with the landscape architect Warren H. Manning, whose drawings of the "Billerica Garden Suburb" are dated July 1914. It was modeled on the garden cities of England, and its streets were named for them: Letchworth, the first garden city, begun in 1903, Port Sunlight, Hampstead, Brentham and Ilford. By 1917 there were about seventy houses.

At the annual town meeting of 1916, on Mr. Williams's motion, the town voted that Letchworth Avenue "from Carleton Street to Ilford Road," with Mason Avenue, Indian Road, Brentham Road, Port Sunlight Road and Ilford Road, "be accepted by the Town when satisfactory to the Board of Selectmen," and at the annual meeting of February 14, 1920 it formally accepted "the laying out by the Selectmen as Town ways" of the same streets and Hampstead Avenue. The street was oiled from Carlton Street to Mason Avenue in 1928, and in 1930 it was macadamized under a special appropriation, "a macadam job" that cost $1,950. In 1939 the town named its junction with Faulkner and Carleton Streets William Collins Square. A further 1,000 feet, Letchworth Avenue Extension, was accepted as a town way on March 13, 1954, and the avenue now ends at the treatment plant, which was greatly enlarged from 1988.

The street was not on the official map of 1831 and was not among the roads accepted in 2016. The name Letchworth Avenue has not changed since 1914, though the 1920 vote also called it "Letchworth Road."

Historic Buildings

Name	Alternate	Address	Built	Moved	Demolished
Faulkner Manufacturing Company Worker Housing at 10-12 Letchworth Av		10-12 Letchworth Av	1870
Faulkner Manufacturing Company Worker Housing at 6-8 Letchworth Av		6-8 Letchworth Av	1870
Williams Barn		2-4 Letchworth Av	1925

References

1. Annual report 1916: Article 31, Letchworth Avenue from Carleton Street to Ilford Road and other Garden Suburb streets
2. Annual report 1916: Article 31, on Mr. Williams's motion, ways accepted "when satisfactory to the Board of Selectmen"
3. Annual report 1920: Article 15 voted, laying out of Letchworth Avenue from Carleton Street to Ilford Road accepted as a town way
4. Annual report 1928: Letchworth Avenue oiled from Carlton Street to Mason Avenue
5. Annual report 1929: warrant article to macadamize Letchworth Avenue from Carlton Street to Mason Avenue, about 325 feet
6. Annual report 1930: "Letchworth Avenue, $1,950.00, this was a macadam job, and is completed"
7. Annual report 1939: junction of Faulkner Street, Carleton Street and Letchworth Avenue named William Collins Square
8. Annual report 1953: warrant article to accept Letchworth Avenue Extension, about 1000 feet, as a town way
9. Annual report 1956: list of streets accepted, "Letchworth Ave. 2-14-20" and "Letchworth Ave., 1000 ft. 3-13-54"